


Getting Up Again

by trashulous



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, bisexual!marinette, i'll add more tags as i write more, mild homophobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 03:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5401439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashulous/pseuds/trashulous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All the luck in the world and growing up still isn’t easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Getting Up Again

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello! Here's a new fic! I have a bunch of potential ideas that are swirling together for this, but since some of them aren't definite yet, I'll be adding tags/warnings/etc as I progress through the story, so be sure to check back on those when I post new chapters. (Also, the rating is subject to change)
> 
> I would love to hear your thoughts on this, so leave if a comment if you want or you can contact me on my fandom sideblog: trashulous.tumblr.com
> 
> Thank you for reading!

The hospital room is never silent.

Tom is admittedly not a man made for silence, but he is not a man made for the unnerving beeps of hospital machinery that will never let him forget the position that his family is in, either. Tom is a man for overhearing whispers of conversation in his bakery, a man who encompasses space with his singing, a man who never scolds his daughter for her dramatic shrieking when “all she’s doing is expressing herself, Sabine! We can’t take that away from her!”

Sabine had groaned and laughed as she was in the habit of doing when the difference in their upbringing became particularly obvious. Her smile wrinkled in a pleasant way that made Tom’s heart swoop even years after marriage.

However, Sabine wasn’t smiling—she wasn’t there, after Tom had begged her to stay home and get some rest in a _proper bed_ , but she probably wasn’t smiling regardless.

The sounds of the door opening breaks Tom out of his own absent-minded musings and he looks up to find the doctor enter the room.

It was hard to pay attention, not when any moment the words you’ve been trying to avoid hearing could be thrown at you. However, Tom had hardly processed the results that the doctor said before he put his head in his hands, unable to take it much longer.

“I need to—I need to call her…my wife,” he croaks after asking a few clarifying questions. The doctor leaves and Tom is shaking, calling Sabine and wishing she was next to him.

_“Tom? What happened? Did you find anything out? How is she?”_

He is in luck.

“H-honey. It’s alright! It’s going to be alright…”

Tom sends a shaky glance at his daughter lying unconscious in the hospital bed.

Marinette is six years old.

—

Marinette was always looking out for people. It wasn’t something to be understood, nothing to look at and analyze—it was simply just in her nature.

That always made it a little difficult, because it was a quality that many people lacked, and sometimes she suffered for it.

Sabine remembers the day that Marinette came back from class one day, eight years old and crying as if she had never known happiness. Sabine knew this wasn’t true, that Marinette was constantly bubbly and energetic, but also knew that for all the time Marinette was pure smiles and sunshine, her light could be blocked and the storm would be unleashed at the drop of a hat…or, in this case, the drop of a cookie.

“She didn’t want them!” Marinette can hardly make out the words, so upset she was. “C-Chloe…she stepped on my cookies! _Dad’s_ cookies!”

Sabine honestly can’t tell if Marinette is more upset at Chloe rejecting her gift or at her stomping on her father’s treats.

“Marinette…” her mother begins softly, ready to explain that Tom could make more cookies, but not quite sure she is ready to tell Marinette that even people Chloe’s age could view social status as an absolute hierarchy.

“I just wanted her to be my friend,” Marinette sniffs. “But she got mad and stomped on my cookies and then I couldn’t give any to anybody else because Chloe _ruined them all!_ ”

Sabine takes her distraught daughter into her arms to comfort her.

“When your father gets home from work,” Sabine says, “We can make more cookies, and I can come to school with you to give them to everyone.”

“But…but why doesn’t Chloe like me? What’s wrong with me?”

Sabine takes a deep breath.

“There is nothing wrong with you, Marinette. Sometimes, you can’t control what other people think…”

—

Marinette’s ninth birthday is all rambunctious running around with friends and happy laughter. There is cake and candles and a secret wish of _I want to be a superhero one day!_ that she won’t think of again until years later when destiny calls.

But for now there is presents and friends and _fun_ , and no newly turned nine year old is thinking that much ahead towards the future anyway.

Later that night it is just her and Alya staying over for the night, being allowed to watch movies later than usual due to the birthday. Alya is messing around with a lipstick kit that was presented in a lovely shiny pink wrapping paper, and Marinette is scribbling random shapes in a notebook with shiny new colored pencils that her cousins have given her.

“That is so _pretty_!” Alya squeaks at the TV screen, right as a girl wearing a dress appeared. “I wish _I_ had a dress like that!”

Marinette’s eyes grew wide at the design and her friend’s eagerness for a pretty dress. Even though it is her birthday— _her day_ , her family and friends keep on telling her—Alya is her best friend and Marinette will give her a dress within her available boundaries. She looks down at her notebook and suddenly her abstract shapes take form.

—

Marinette has had crushes before, but never like _this_.

Her heart is fluttering and her face is flushing, and she can’t understand _any of it_. She doesn’t understand how she can’t form coherent words or how she manages to lose control of basic bodily actions; her arms flap around awkwardly and her legs are in constant movement; bouncing, tapping, the works.

The worst is that at first she doesn’t even know why this is happening. All she knows is that a new girl transferred into her class and now Marinette is an absolute _mess_.

It clicks when a boy tries to kiss her and Marinette thinks she’d rather the new girl kiss her instead.

She isn’t quite sure how to deal with this new information about herself, not having really heard about people liking the same sex before. Then one day she hears Chloe telling whoever would listen about how her older sister was kicked out of the house for _kissing another girl if you can believe it_! The kids around her are disgusted and agree that her sister should be kicked out because it was “so gross!”

And though Marinette is nice generally and not one to judge, she knows how other people can think differently from her, and what if she gets kicked out of her house? What if Alya won’t be her friend anymore? Either thought makes her heart race and tears come to her eyes, so Marinette blocks her crush out, digging it deep inside the dark spaces of her mind.

For years after that, whenever Marinette thought of the girl and why she acted so strangely around her, she would just sum it up to wanting to be her friend very badly, with nothing more to it.

—

Léon is her cousin. He’s older with slicked back hair and has his tongue pierced. Marinette suspects that Alya is a little bit in love with him but she doesn’t mention it to anyone.

Léon also has a younger sister, Bridgette, just a little bit younger than Marinette herself. They both like to take turns doing each other’s hair and talking about the shows they both watched.

Marinette doesn’t have siblings, but she likes to think of her cousins as such anyway, which is why she is always so overjoyed to visit them.

Alya has sent several messages showing her disappointment that she wasn’t able to go over to Marinette’s aunt and uncle’s house to see Léon, but tells her to tell him that she said hello. Marinette grins at her cell phone, knowing that Alya probably wanted to say a lot more than that, or was at least hoping for Léon to ask after her.

Léon did not disappoint.

“How’s your friend?” He asks, noting she was texting.

They are holed up in his room, sitting next to each other on his bed. They had been outside previously with the adults (Bridgette was not present, for she was at a friend’s house), but their smoking had gotten to Léon (“It’s the worst smell in the world! How can they stand it?”) who had promptly relocated to his room, knowing Marinette would follow without having to be prompted.

“She’s doing really well,” Marinette smiles, thinking of Alya’s recent success at the spelling bee the other day and the special pie she had baked that they later shared.

Léon smiles softly at his cousin, lifting his hand to ruffle her hair. “And what about you?”

“Me?” she blinks before breaking out in a wide grin. “I get to see you, so I’m excellent!”

Léon tilts back his head and laughs at her clear enthusiasm.

“I’m honored you’re so happy to see a boring old man like me.”

“You’re not boring _or_ old, Léon, get outta here!”

The two cousins reminisce, and Marinette looks out the window to the backyard.

—

Marinette is six years old and playing with Léon who is around ten. Bridgette is four years old and waddling after them with a happy smile on her face. They are in Léon and Bridgette’s back yard running around the grassy area. Their parents are inside but trust Léon to look after the young ones. Their pool is being constructed, so the kids try to keep away. However, they are over energetic kids who begin playing chase, and things happen.

Bridgette is four and not old enough to understand where she should and shouldn’t be, and is also not old enough to control all of her body’s movements yet. However, Marinette and Léon both turn and see Bridgette run close to the empty pool…in fact, she’s dangerously close. The two both make an effort to get to her, but Marinette is closer and fast; right when Bridgette is about to tumblr into the construction of the empty pool, Marinette side-checks her back into the grass. Unfortunately, Marinette is not as lucky.

Sabine and Tom are inside having a great time catching up with Sabine’s sister and brother-in-law until they hear the screams.

Running outside, they see Bridgette on the grass crying with Leon crying and peering down into the empty pool.

There is Marinette, down on the ground of the pool, a piece of rebar impaled through her stomach. She is crying and screaming, blood is everywhere, and Tom and Sabine can’t seem to breath properly anymore.

It is not only the first time Marinette saves someone, but it is the first time she saves someone with serious consequences to herself.

It’s not the last time.

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to a lot of the song "Try" by P!nk when I wrote this. (Also the title is inspired by a lyric from it)


End file.
